Cellular Services

[jeff1234]

I've been having a lot of problems with Movistar and am wondering if anyone has had good experience with another cellular company, preferably one that services our area, La Plata.

 

[BaltRochGirl]

No, but you're not the only one having issues with Movistar connectivity has not been good the past few weeks, and their promotions went from good to terrible in the past -6 months.

 

[jeff1234]

Normally we have poor reception anywhere within a few miles of our house. We have learned to live with this. But we recently got new phones and went to Movistar to have them activated. Seems simple enough, right? Their systems have been down all of the last week and pretty much all of the last month, so we are unable to begin using our new phones. When we call ahead we are told the systems are working but they never are. When will they be back in service? "Manana". We've made, honestly 9 trips there this week, no joy. Once they told us it didnt matter if the systems were working because they didnt have any more chips on hand anyway. How surprising is it that they dont seem to have a strong competitor.

 

[sevi]

None of the mobile phone carriers seem to provide a really reliable service. From what I learned from others and my own experience it seems both Personal and Claro are a little better, especially when it comes to Internet connectivity.

 

[Girino]

I have been using Personal, and I don't like it very much.
The coverage is arguable (but I have never used other carriers) and there are many blind spots even in Capital Federal.

My use is minimal, I just need to receive/send calls from/to my husband and to check my emails when I am not at home, however:
1) Emails are usually delayed 5 to 10 mins
2) Usually my phone picks the headline of the message, but when I click on the notification to open the message, it has to connect again and download the body of the message, which takes 1-2 minutes.
3) I have a subscription very cheap called Juegos, where I have up to 10 MB of 3G internet connection, then I have to ask for another 10 MB for 1,5 pesos. The truth is that it is delayed and quite slow for the first 10 MB, after which it stops. It is painful! I thought 10 MB was enough just to read the body of my emails. However, even WiFi in cafés is pretty slow, so I am not sure if it is my plan/Personal that sucks, or if this is the national trend.

 

[bobsnowpuppy]

I don't know how Claro coverage is everywhere, but I have had it since September and had no problems. Evidently they had technical difficulties last month because I got a 20% statement discount, but i didn't notice any problems. I have a contracted rate of $295/month (about $20USD) for 18 months with unlimited everything except an allowance for calls with other carriers. I mostly use Whatsapp and talk to my relatives who are only as far as Tigre or Moron. I have no complaints and I do use it as a hotspot at home when my WiFi is down.

 

[wineguy999]

We've had service with all three major carriers. We had good signal strength at home with Claro until they constructed a new, tall building behind us. Then, next to nothing.

Movistar and Personal are about the same, but we have a better plan through Personal. As Serafina pointed out, dead zones are the nature of the beast in BsAs.

 

[Cecil Fox Palmer]

I switched from Personal to Movistar because I wanted to go to free concerts. Both services are bad.

Back when I first came to Argentina, everyone was using the crédito system so basically no one was ever available to give you a call. I remember the most "top" cellphones were Blackberrys... Blackberrys! Now I see everyone with their overpriced smartphones and I have to wonder how can they even get to use them with such shitty service. I have learned to live without a cellphone in this country. It's quite liberating.

 

[RodalfoWalsh]

However, even WiFi in cafés is pretty slow, so I am not sure if it is my plan/Personal that sucks, or if this is the national trend.

It's probably your plan. While not stunning personal's service has greatly improved recently. It sounds to me like your using your 10mb (that is really not much data if you use any app with fotos) and afterwards you're being throttled to 56kb/s which is basically unuseable speed.

Fwiw here is a speed test from my phone taken from inside my house in capital.

 

[Girino]

I took a test just for you, dear Rodalfo.

The first one is over my 3G speed limit. I.e. choking.

The second one is right after I activated the 10 MB @ 3G

The third one is after I visited the forum under the 3G offer. The navigation was smooth! However I was unable to repeat the test because I already used all my 10 MB to perform just 2 speed tests.

As you can see, there are improvements, however nothing near like your performance. The test was taken in my house in San Isidro centro.